One Pot Goulash

I love dishes that can be prepared in one pot. This one comes together really easily and tastes great!

Easy One Pot Goulash

One Pot Goulash

500 g ground beef, pork, or chicken

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups water

1 can tomato puree (standard can--not the big one)

1 can tomatoes*

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 Tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 bay leaf

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

250g uncooked pasta (macaroni or spirals)

1 cup cheese, shredded

In a large pot, brown meat over medium heat, breaking it into small pieces. Stir in onions and garlic and cook until translucent. Add water, tomato puree, tomatoes, soy sauce, oregano, basil, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Stir together just to mix. Bring up to a boil. Turn heat to low, cover with lid, and cook 20 minutes**, stirring occasionally to prevent burning on the bottom. Add in pasta, cover, and cook on low until pasta is soft. Remove from heat, throw away the bay leaf, sprinkle with cheese, and stir everything together.

Notes:

* With canned tomatoes, I just stick scissors into the can to quickly chop them a bit smaller, nothing fancy. Cans with large tomatoes are the easiest to find and cheapest so this is an easy workaround. 

** If you are in a hurry, you can just dump your pasta in here and cook for 25 minutes. The only difference in the final dish is the richness of the sauce. If you have really hungry people, just fast track it!

Egg Roll In a Bowl

This one I have come to love since discovering it a few months ago. It has joined our regular rotation, and because of my thrifty use of pork in the recipe, I can have ½ pound of minced pork sausage ready for another meal. Mostly Homemade Mom comes through again on this one with a few minor adaptations for living here. We like to eat ours with rice rather than just as is. I can confidently say that if you cook your rice in a pressure cooker just as you start the cooking for the egg roll part, you can have dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes start to finish. Those are seriously hard to come by when you live in the developing world!

Egg Roll in a Bowl

500g pork mince, turned into sausage (omit herbs)

½ large head or 1 small head cabbage, sliced into ribbons

2 cups carrots, julienned

5 cloves garlic, minced

¼ - 1/3 cup good quality soy sauce (more if lower quality)

1 teaspoon dried ginger

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Green onions, tops only, sliced

Mix the dried ginger, sesame oil, and soy sauce in a small bowl. Heat a wok over high heat. Fry half the sausage mixture with a small splash of soy sauce until browned. Save the rest of the sausage in the fridge for breakfast or another meal. Remove the browned sausage from the pan. If the pan is still shiny from the fat in the sausage, just toss the garlic directly in. Otherwise, add a little oil. Stir continuously just until the garlic begins to look golden. Quickly toss in the remaining vegetables and the soy sauce mixture. Fry, stirring continuously, until the vegetables begin to wilt. Return the sausage to the pan and cook until vegetables are tender but still have a bite. Sprinkle over the green onions and add soy sauce as needed for seasoning. Remove from heat and serve over rice or as is.